


Who Ya Gonna Call?

by whizzerdbrown



Series: price-brown family [4]
Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn, The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: F/F, F/M, Ghosts, Kevin and Whizzer are twins, M/M, Modern AU, also jason is a ghost, bc i love him and i want him in here but he couldnt be their kids, because theyre all like 19 in this, connor & marvin are tour guides, mendel & james are bellhops, pretty much everyone except marvin believes in ghosts, price-brown au, sort of based off of gravity falls??? just a little bit, takes place in a haunted hotel, trina & chris work in the kitchen, whizzer doesnt believe at first but then he goes to the hotel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-03-24 03:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13802676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whizzerdbrown/pseuds/whizzerdbrown
Summary: Whizzer and Kevin are sent to spend their summer with a family member they’ve never met. On top of that, they’re finding out as they ride the plane to get there, they’re going to be staying at a “haunted” hotel, apparently owned by their great grandfather.Their grandfather turns out to be... weird. They’ll later find out that this hotel is a little bit more than just a tourist attraction.{ sort of based off of gravity falls! }also thanks to my buddy @have_a_nice_day for helping me come up with ideas go follow her





	1. intro, part one: connor

The Uber ride from the airport to the hotel was rather uneventful. Well, okay, the driver kept telling them ghost stories that she’d heard about the place, but both Kevin and Whizzer called bullshit on all of them. Whizzer had never believed in the paranormal. Kevin, however, did, but this stuff just sounded fake. It was about a ten minute drive, and then they were there. After they got their bags, the van drove off, leaving the two of them standing in front of the surprisingly nice looking five-star hotel.

“For as bad as she was making it sound,” Whizzer mumbled to Kevin, “I thought this place would look like shit.”

Kevin nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”

And then a man stepped outside, holding his arms out wide to the pair, a large, cheesy grin over his face. “My grandboys are finally here! Welcome,” he said, his uplifting and fun grandfather tone now twisting into one of a haunted attraction tour guide, “to the All-American Applebaum Inn!”

Whizzer half expected there to be lighting flashes and loud thunder rumblings to follow the lame hotel title. But, alas. Nothing. Both he and Kevin just stood there, sharing a confused gaze. What were they supposed to say? _Oooo, how spooky!_ ? 

“Well, come along, then,” the man said, waving them along. “I’ll have the bellhops take your things up to your rooms, and we’ll get Connor and Marvin to show you guys around.”

Kevin and Whizzer followed their grandfather up the insane amount of stairs and into the entrance of the hotel. It was a gigantic hotel - the type of building that looked big on the outside and was even bigger on the inside. Their bags were instantly taken by bellhops, as the man had said. 

“Hey, Connor!” He waved a boy in a sparkly pink vest over. “These are my grandchildren, Kevin and Whizzer. Could you give them your part of the tour, then send them up to Marvin?”

He’d pointed to the wrong twin when he said their names. But they were used to that, so they didn’t bother to correct him. 

And then they were left with this redhead, Connor. Apparently one of the two tour guides. 

“Is this place actually haunted?” Kevin asked him, as they were lead down a long, admittedly kind of scary looking hallway. 

Connor smiled at them. “That’s up to you to decide. Personally? I think so. I’ve seen and heard some things in the four years I’ve worked here.”

Whizzer was skeptical. “Things like what?”

“Voices, footsteps, beeping, shadows, figures,” Connor listed off. “I’ve been injured a few times, too. Marvin wouldn’t believe me, but Trina and Chris - in the kitchen - totally will. They’ve had a lot of experiences in the kitchen, too.” 

“Wait, hold on,” Kevin said, ignoring Whizzer’s eye roll. “You’ve been injured here? By the, uh…”

Connor nodded. “By the ghosts. Yeah. Just scratches and bruises, nothing too bad. Yet.”

Whizzer jumped in. “Alright, okay. What happens in the kitchen? Food fights?”

“Once. Actually, I think that was more Chris’s doing.” Connor seemed to think about that, before shrugging with a cheerful smile. He didn’t seem at all bothered about working in a haunted hotel, that seemingly had lots of activity. “You’ll have to talk to them about that, they _love_ telling those stories.”

Both twins made a note of that. 

Connor showed them around the downstairs, down each hallway, the theater room, the library, the pool and where the food court was. Then, he glanced around and motioned for them to follow him. “Come on, we can go on into the kitchen. Just don’t tell anyone I let you back here - it’s supposed to be employees only.” 

There were, surprisingly, only two cooks in the kitchen. Apparently the Trina and Chris that Connor had mentioned. And, apparently, they didn’t mind that Connor was sneaking non-employees into the kitchen. 

“Welcome to Hell’s Kitchen,” Chris had greeted them, with a flourish. 

Trina was chopping up a potato, but she did look up long enough to give them a wave and a smile. 

“This is Whizzer and Kevin,” Connor introduced, somehow managing to point to the correct twin. “They’re staying here for the summer.”

“I’m Trina,” the girl said, pushing away the cutting board. “And he’s Chris. It’s nice to have you here - even if you might change your mind about wanting to be here the whole summer.”

Chris grinned. “It’s a nice place, as long as you don’t mind getting hit in the head with a carrot. That’s happened to me twice now, and it wasn’t thrown by Trina.”

Whizzer didn’t look convinced. Kevin, however, was intrigued. “A ghost.. threw a carrot at your head?”

“It did,” Trina confirmed. “He was taunting it, though. Both times. He deserved it.” 

They talked about kitchen stories for a little while. Trina had apparently had foods knocked from her hands, both of them had dealt with silverware and other utensils getting moved from where they had originally been sat down. Chris talked about being haunted by a ghost that was a Gordon Ramsay fan, because he kept hearing voices telling him that he was marinating chicken wrong. 

The next few stories were nothing too cool. Connor talked them through each area, showing them special areas of interest and telling stories of things he’s dealt with. Connor apparently got doors shut in his face a lot, when he was alone. 

“Well,” Connor finally said, at the sixth story. “This is, sadly, where my part of the tour ends. I can guarantee you that the next six stories will go a lot quicker. Marvin isn’t much of a talker.”

Whizzer and Kevin were sent up to the seventh story on their own, where they were supposed to be meeting Marvin, the only other tour guide.


	2. intro, part two: marvin

Connor was definitely right about Marvin not being a talker. In fact… Kevin was kind of afraid of him at first. 

Whizzer, on the other hand, burst out laughing when he saw the short, grumpy-looking man. “I thought you were going to be, like, sixty years old!”

Marvin glared. “I’m twenty-one.”

He certainly looked a little older than that, but definitely nowhere near as old as Whizzer had thought. Though, the way that Connor had described him did kind of seem like he’d be an older man. Marvin was only two years older than Kevin and Whizzer - Kevin wondered how old that made Connor, then. Connor looked young. A little younger than them, possibly. 

Whizzer was still chuckling, even under Marvin’s harsh stare. Kevin elbowed his twin, to try and get him to stop. 

“Are we going to see anything cool on this part of the tour?” Whizzer asked, as he finally composed himself and they followed along behind Marvin. 

Marvin sighed. “No.”

“Really? That sucks.”

“This whole thing is bullshit, I hope you know that.”

Kevin couldn’t help himself. “Then how do you explain everything that Connor, Chris, and Trina say they’ve seen?”

Marvin didn’t give a reply. 

This part of the tour was certainly more boring than Connor’s part. Marvin seemed to hate his life as well as the lives of everyone around him. They saw a few things, but didn’t get nearly as much information as they would have gotten from Connor. 

But still, Whizzer continued to question. Even though both he and Kevin knew they weren’t getting great answers. 

“Where’s the scariest place up here?” 

Marvin pointed to a secluded hallway. “It’s blocked off for a reason. Don’t go there. I’ll kick you out.”

“Why?” Whizzer questioned, pausing for a moment at the hallway entrance. Kevin stopped too. 

The hallway was empty. No rooms, no windows, nothing. It was just a straight, dead-end hallway. It did give off a creepy, no good aura, though. 

Marvin shrugged. “Because I said?”

“I’m going to go down there when you’re not looking.”

“Not a great idea.”

Both Kevin and Whizzer jumped at the sudden voice. 

A girl stood a little ways behind them, in the area that they had just come from. She was pretty, and tall, and had a bandana in her short curly hair. She was wearing a Star Wars t-shirt that matched the one of the guy who stood behind her - who was quite the opposite of her, being much shorter and kind of chubby. 

She laughed at the looks of surprise on their faces. “I am not a ghost,” she stated, raising her hands up in mock surrender. “But that hallway? _There_ are the ghosts.” 

“People actually got killed down there!” Her friend supplied, helpfully. His loud voice made both Kevin and Marvin wince. “Four different people! In the past three years! That’s why they had to close it off!”

Whizzer looked interested, quickly turning to Marvin. “Is that true?”

“Ask Connor.” Marvin said, turning away and continuing to where he’d been leading them. “I’m continuing the tour now, whether you two come or not.”

“Bye!” The loud boy yelled. “I’m Arnold, by the way! And this is my girlfriend Nabulungi! We’ll see you later!”

Whizzer waved to Nabulungi and Arnold before following Marvin and Kevin again. 

The rest of the tour was boring. Whizzer continuing to try to get answers out of Marvin, and casually trying to flirt with him too. They got through the last six stories, and then Marvin brought them back to their room on the ninth story and left them there. 

Their room was really nice. It had two beds, a small kitchen area, a small living room space, and a bathroom. As expected, their bags were already there in the room. They put things away and Whizzer claimed the bed closest to the window. 

“So,” Whizzer said, flopping back on his bed, “how much of this place do you think is bullshit?”

“I don’t know,” Kevin shrugged. “Connor seemed pretty legit with what he was telling us.”

“Do you think four people really died in that hallway?”

“We’ll have to ask Connor, like Marvin said. If anything, _Marvin_ is scary enough for me.”

That made Whizzer laugh. “He’s just like a grumpy old man in the body of a young adult. I wonder if he ever smiles.”

“I bet his smile is scary.”

“He’s kind of cute.”

Kevin gave Whizzer a blank stare. “Please stop trying to flirt with the scary tour guide.”

“Would you rather me flirt with Connor?”

“Uh- Absolutely not? Connor seems too… pure, for you. Don’t flirt with anyone.”

Whizzer was grinning. “I bet Connor’s not as pure as he seems. I bet he’s seen some shit. I bet _he’s_ the one who killed all those people in the hallway.”

Kevin rolled his eyes, playing along at this point. “If anyone who works here was the one to kill people in a hallway, it would be Marvin. He looked about ready to chop that one guy’s head off.”

“What guy? Arnold?”

“Yeah, sure.” Kevin hadn’t been paying much attention. 

Whizzer shrugged. “I bet Arnold did it.”

“Or his girlfriend,” Kevin chuckled. “She seemed strong enough.” 

Kevin wondered if this counted as ‘provoking the spirits,’ which he had always heard was the last thing to do in a haunted environment. Whizzer didn’t seem to care - but he’d always been the daredevil of the two of them. Whizzer always wanted to test his limits. The only reason he never ended up injured (or worse) was because Kevin was usually there at his side to pull him out of whatever danger he was about to get himself into. 

He looked back over at Whizzer, who was now standing at the window, looking out of it. “This place is huge. There’s a golf course out there - and another pool. Think anyone died out there?”

“From drowning, sure.” Kevin commented. “Maybe from boredom out at the golf course.”

Whizzer snickered. 

They spent a few more hours up in their room, looking through the drawers and such. Nothing interesting. There wasn’t any footsteps or noises like Connor said there’d be, either. But, still, they _had_ just got there. Give it time, they supposed. 

It was Whizzer’s great idea to go explore on their own when it got later. Maybe there was more activity at night? 

They’d decided to leave the hotel to get something to eat around seven. Then, Whizzer dragged Kevin to Target, insisting that they needed ‘ghost hunting equipment’ if they were expecting to see anything cool, and that Target had absolutely everything that they’d need. 

Whizzer scored a few cameras, an audio recorder, and a few things that he deemed useful (but that were truly not useful, not for this at least) before he agreed that they could go back. It was nearly midnight at this point. If they were going to get any kind of evidence, it would be sometime near this late hour.


	3. ghost busters!

Connor was standing at the front desk, scribbling in a notepad, when Kevin and Whizzer got back. Whizzer was quick to go to the desk, grinning at the shorter, redheaded boy. “Tell me about the hallway,” Whizzer said, like a child asking for a bedtime story. “The one upstairs, in Marvin’s tour area.”

“Oh, gosh,” Connor murmured, putting the pen down and turning all of his attention onto the twins. “You ran into Arnold, didn’t you? I knew I never should have told him about that.”

“About what?” Kevin asked. He was finding himself to be very intrigued as well, now. 

Connor glanced between the two of them, before letting out a sigh. “He’s not lying. Four people really were murdered down there, and here recently. Within my time of working here. Luckily, I wasn’t the person to find the bodies - and neither was Marvin - but… I’ll tell you, from experience, it’s wise to avoid that area at all costs. I hate even walking past the hallway.” 

“Why?” Whizzer asked. “Just because of the idea that four people died down there?”

That actually made Connor giggle. “Oh, gosh, no. If I was afraid of passing areas where people died, I wouldn’t work here. I couldn’t go _anywhere.”_ With a cheerful smile, he motioned to Whizzer’s Target bag. “I’m sure that people have even died in the Target that you just came back from.”

Whizzer and Kevin shared a gaze. Connor was kind of scarier than they’d expected?

“Alright,” Kevin mumbled, quickly moving away from that topic. “So then, what is it about that hallway?”

Connor turned serious again. “It’s haunted. Crazy haunted. Easily the most haunted place in the whole hotel. Nobody, not even staff, will go down there unless it’s completely necessary.” He took a deep breath, tapping his finger on the counter. “I had to go down there, a few times. Because people threw trash down the hallway, over the little gate. We really need to just barricade it off, but we’re kind of scared to see what would happen if we did. Anyway, both times I went down there, I swear I stared death in the face.”

Whizzer raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Scratches. Bruises. That’s where I got them from.” Connor said. “Well, the worst of them, at least. I get them from the basement, too - but we are _not_ talking about that.”

Both of them were now interested in the basement, too, but Connor continued on about the hallway. 

“It’s fine for the first few steps. I got a little ways down there, and I remember thinking that everyone was just being dramatic. Just panicking. I was so wrong. I felt burning sensations on my arms and legs, and claws on my back, and like someone was hitting me in the face. I went as quick as I could, then - grabbed the trash and ran back out of there. It was Marvin who actually pointed out the bruises, and then, upon further examination, I found the scratches too. And the second time… I went as fast as I could. Still ended up with the same results.” 

It was quiet for a moment. 

“Can I go down the hallway?”

Kevin answered for Connor. “No! You _dumbass,_ did you not listen to what he just said?”

Whizzer was pouting, now. “I just wanted to see for myself!”

“Please,” Connor said, shaking his head. “Just believe me. You can call bull on literally everything else I’ve said, if you want. I don’t lie, but- if it’ll keep you out of the hallway-“

“Look, he’s _serious,”_ Kevin continued. “You aren’t going down that hallway.” 

“I’ll take you somewhere else?” Connor offered. “Still haunted, you’ll still see activity, but much safer.”

Whizzer seemed to think about that for a moment, before nodding. “Alright. Fine. But I better get results, otherwise I _am_ going down into that hallway, and I won’t let either one of you - or Marvin, or anyone else who tries - stop me.”

“Deal.”

Connor was quick to agree. Kevin assumed that Connor must be very confident in wherever he was planning to take them. Which honestly made Kevin kind of nervous, but he wasn’t about to admit that out loud. 

They watched as Connor pulled out a key ring from under the front desk, then motioned to them to follow along. 

“Now, I want you to know that I don’t normally just take people here,” Connor was saying. “It’s kind of off-limits, and Marvin will probably yell at me if he sees or hears about this. So you can’t tell anyone. I don’t want to lose my job just because I’m trying to find a safer alternative for ghost hunters.”

Whizzer grinned at Kevin, excitedly. “Off-limits! This is going to be _awesome!”_

Kevin didn’t know how he felt, really. He was kind of excited, like Whizzer was, but he also felt fear and a bit of dread. What has he done to get himself dragged into this? Why did he agree to take up his parents’ offer to come stay with their grandpa for the summer? They hadn’t even _seen_ the guy since they first got here. 

“This is- safe, right?” Kevin found himself asking. 

Connor gave a small shrug. “Gonna be honest with you here, just being in this hotel isn’t actually safe. There’s a chance of anything happening. But, uh, yeah. Of all the best haunted spots in here, this is one of the… less dangerous ones.”

Whizzer was snickering. Kevin didn’t find it nearly as amusing, but he kept back any next responses in order to keep himself from ruining Connor and Whizzer’s fun. 

To Kevin and Whizzer’s surprise, Connor seemed to be taking them into one of the larger suites. It was nice, very well kept - probably because nobody was allowed down here. Connor flicked on the lights, then let the twins in, then closed the door behind them. 

Connor and Whizzer were glancing around the room. Kevin, instead, found himself just watching Connor. “What are we supposed to see in here?”

“Well, first of all, things keep getting thrown around. I was just in here last night,” Connor said, picking up a few blankets from behind one of the beds and folding them up, putting them in a closet - that had already been open when they got here. “The guests that I was in here with got some good pictures of orbs, just from their phone cameras. We heard some things. Bathroom door opened and closed at least four times. One of them said she thought she saw someone standing behind me, and then it was gone when I turned around.”

“Cool,” Whizzer grinned, pulling out the camera that he got from Target and snapping some pictures of the room. And a few of Kevin, who was unwillingly the center of the picture. “Do they follow you around or something?”

Connor shrugged, sitting on one of the beds and glancing between the two of them. “Something like that. Trina jokes that they’re trying to make me snap.” He was still smiling. Like the idea of this didn’t bother him too much. 

Kevin sighed, sitting himself down on the other bed and looking around at their surroundings. Even if he hadn’t known that this room was haunted, he definitely would have had his suspicions. It was definitely creepy. “Do you know the story of why this room is haunted?”

“Oh, yeah. Years ago, I think around the 80s, a couple lost their kid to a car accident. Right in the parking lot to here. They weren’t paying attention to him, he was out there playing, and the person driving wasn’t paying attention either. Horrible. He was only twelve. The father blamed himself for it all, and when they got back to this room, he shot and killed his wife, then did the same to himself.”

Kevin felt chills go down his back. Connor continued on. 

“Some people have even seen the boy. I never have, not yet. I think Trina has - and I know that Marvin has, but he won’t admit it. He swears he was talking to a real, alive, little boy.”

Whizzer seemed more interested in Marvin. “Will he admit anything? Why does he even work here if he thinks everything’s bullshit?”

“I don’t know,” Connor said, smiling, with a shrug. “Needed a job, I guess. And since we were hiring at the time…”

And then Kevin, accidentally, cut off their conversation when he saw the door to the bathroom slowly start to close. “Woah- Wait, oh my god, why is it _doing_ that?”

It grabbed both of their attentions. Whizzer was watching with wide eyed excitement, and Connor just sat back and let it happen. Connor had seen enough that just a small door wasn’t going to freak him out. 

“That’s normal,” Connor shrugged, in answer to Kevin’s question. “It’s closed in my face multiple times.”

But then, the front door slammed open with a loud bang. That was enough to freak everyone out - until they saw Chris step into the light with a mischievous grin. 

“Chris,” Connor whined. 

“Sorry!” But he didn’t sound too sorry, as he came into the room and closed the door behind him. “Has there, by chance, been a luggage cart come by here?”

Whizzer and Kevin shared a confused gaze. 

But Connor seemed to know exactly what Chris was talking about, and he was grinning. “Did James lose it again?”

Chris nodded. “I was right there when it took off. We went in the direction that it had gone in but- nothing. Gone. I bet it’s in that one hallway.”

“I’m sorry, what happened?” Whizzer cut in. 

“The ghosts always steal James’s luggage carts. He was the one who took your stuff to your room - it was probably taken away from him a few different times,” Chris explained. 

“I think they just like to see James get mad,” Connor commented. 

“He _is_ cute when he’s mad,” Chris agreed, as he sat next to Connor on the bed. 

Whizzer was pouting now. “I want a ghost to take something from me.”

Kevin stared. 

Connor, however, just shrugged. “Just hold something out and tell it to. Sometimes, that works.”

“Or,” Chris supplied, “walk with James and Mendel, in the afternoons. They like to pull on Mendel’s hair and steal James’s carts, often at the same time. It’s so funny.” 

Whizzer tried holding out a few different items, and practically begging that something get taken from him, but nothing happened. The bathroom door opened and closed a few more times, but they didn’t get to see or hear much else that night before Kevin and Whizzer finally decided to head back up to their room for the night.


	4. early morning noises & creepy children

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we want to see our little (ghost) boy  
> here he comes

Kevin didn’t sleep all that well. Whizzer, however, slept through the rest of the night. 

He kept hearing things. Footsteps, knocks, taps, voices - Kevin didn’t know how much of it was real people, his imagination, or ghosts. Whatever it was, it was enough to freak him out and keep him up all night. 

He got the _amazing_ decision to get up around five in the morning and leave their room, to see whether there were actually people talking in the hallways or not. At least he could rule out one of the three options for the source of the sound. 

There was nothing in the hallway. No people, no animals - nothing. And once he’d stepped out there, and closed the door behind himself, it got completely silent. Eerily so, or maybe he was just worrying too much about things. 

Well, Kevin assumed, he wasn’t going to be getting back to sleep anytime soon, so he walked down the hall and took the elevator back down to the first floor. 

Nobody was there, either. Still silent, other than the soft hum of an air conditioner or two. And then Kevin had the bright idea to go into the one room that Connor had taken them into. 

Quiet, he walked into the room and flicked on the light. The blankets were out of the cabinet again. Kevin slowly picked them up and folded them, putting them back away like Connor had done, before looking around the room. It _seemed_ normal enough, other than the blankets. 

“Hello?” Kevin said, quietly. As if he wasn’t being dumb enough, going to one of the most haunted rooms, alone, at five in the morning. 

But there wasn’t a response. 

So, he continued to look. He looked through the bathroom area of the suite, first. The door shut behind him and he almost screamed. He was quick to get the hell out of there. Nothing else happened, though, as he looked through the rest of the suite. 

It wasn’t until he opened the door to leave the suite that he saw something. 

That _something_ being more of a _someone._ A small boy - a boy that Kevin first mistook as an alive, breathing, child that had just gotten lost in the large hotel. But he realized, rather quickly, that this was the ghost boy that Connor had talked about. 

“Oh my god,” Kevin murmured, quickly taking a few steps back and nearly tripping over himself. “I’m sorry- I was just leaving- Please don’t kill me.”

The boy stared. To Kevin’s surprise, though, after a moment of staring, the boy rolled his eyes. _“I’m_ dead, I couldn’t kill you even if I actually wanted to.”

Kevin hadn’t expected such a clear reply. He didn’t know whether that made things better or worse. “Did you… move the blankets?”

The boy shook his head. “That was a poltergeist. They don’t like being called regular ghosts, by the way.”

“There’s a difference?” Kevin couldn’t believe that he was having a casual conversation with a kid who died in the 80’s. This was easily the creepiest conversation he’d ever had. 

“Well, yeah.” The boy seemed kind of annoyed. “Poltergeists actually throw stuff or move it around. Still sentient, but can’t really show themselves except for through orbs on camera. Ghosts can actually show themselves and talk directly to you if they choose to, like I’m doing. Most of ‘em like to just be scary and annoying, though.”

“Right…” Kevin slowly nodded. “Uh..”

“Your brother’s awake, by the way. I think I might have accidentally given him a hyperbolized heart attack.” The boy smiled. Kevin couldn’t tell if it was cute or creepy. “Bye Kevin!”

And then he was just… Gone. Disappeared into thin air. 

“... Hello? Kid?” 

No response. 

Yeah, alright, Kevin wouldn’t be sleeping for _years_ after this encounter. 

He was quick to return back up to his own suite. Where Whizzer was, indeed, awake, looking through something on his camera. 

“Did you, by chance, talk to a creepy ghost child?” Kevin asked as he entered the room. 

Whizzer didn’t look up. “What, Jason? Yeah. Gave me a heart attack then broke my heart with his story. Poor kid. I hope he’s enjoying his life- er, uh- afterlife, haunting people. Except he said that he doesn’t really do that.”

Kevin stared. 

“And he isn’t creepy. Did you see him? Cutest kid I’ve ever seen, and I hate kids.” Whizzer was quiet for a moment, thoughtful. _Oh god._ “Is it legal and acceptable to adopt a ghost son from your grandfather’s hotel?”

“What the hell.”


	5. the basement

Whizzer had insisted on talking to Marvin about the ghost kid - Jason. Marvin wasn’t about to give them any information.

“Sure, children have died here,” he said, not looking up from the front desk computer. 

They’ve been standing there for at least ten minutes. Whizzer and Marvin arguing like an old married couple, and Kevin just forced to stand there and listen to them. It’s not like he could just wander off and do something else - well, okay, he _could,_ but he was honestly kind of afraid to go through the hotel alone at this point. So he was reduced to having to stand there and listen to them bicker.

“There was a literal ghost child in my room.”

“Doubt it.”

“There was! And he _spoke_ to me.”

“You must just be going insane.”

And on and on and on. Kevin was kind of zoning out. He didn’t want to listen to them fight for forever. 

Then his attention was grabbed by the loud boy they had met a day ago, coming down the hallway with his girlfriend. “Kevin!” He’d cheered.

Kevin didn’t remember giving him his name. That was probably Whizzer’s doing. Oh well.

Arnold said that he and Nabulungi were going out to the golf course - not to golf, but to look and see if they could find any type of paranormal activity. Kevin was kind of already completely done with that stuff, but Naba had added that Connor was going to show them around outside, and that was all that Kevin needed. 

“Have you seen anything here yet?” Arnold asked, practically bouncing, as Kevn walked outside with them.

“Actually, yeah,” Kevin answered, telling them about the boy he’d seen.

Nabulungi was interested by this. “We read about him in the big book, upstairs. His name was Jason. He was only twelve.”

Arnold was frowning, now. “That’s so sad.”

But they had made it outside by then, and they met up with Connor. Connor seemed happy to see that Kevin was tagging along. 

Connor showed them around, telling stories - both serious ones and funny ones to lighten the mood when a story was too dark and Arnold had looked like he was about to start crying. Eventually, Arnold actually got too scared, so he and Nabulungi went off to go see some other, less scary, tourist attraction. Which left Connor and Kevin.

“Do you really like working here?” Kevin asked, as they walked back up to the building.

Connor nodded. “It’s so much fun. I hated it when I first started working here, but I stayed because it was the best job I could get in the area. About a year or two into being here, though, I came to love it.”

Kevin couldn’t understand what Connor would like about it - apart from some of his other coworkers, they seemed cool. And the hotel itself was nice, clean, well put together. But Kevin wouldn’t be able to stand working with all of the tourists and visitors that they would have staying and asking for tours. And don’t even get him started on the ghosts.

“Do you not get scared?”

“Oh, yeah. I totally get scared. All the time,” he answered, smiling and playfully bumping shoulders with Kevin. “But that’s what makes it so fun!”

Kevin felt his cheeks heat up when Connor’s shoulder bumped his own. “You _like_ being scared?”

Connor nodded. “Yeah! Why not? I know that we’re all safe, for the most part. Aside from going down that hallway.”

“Is the hallway the only place you’ll refuse to go?”

“Refuse? Yes. But there are plenty of areas that I don’t really _like_ to go. At least, I don’t like going alone.” He thought about it for a moment, before glancing around. “Do you want me to show you one of those places? You’ll get _amazing_ pictures.”

God, Kevin wanted to say no so badly. He didn’t want to see overly haunted places. He wanted to just get through the rest of this summer with as little ghost activity as possible. “Yeah, sure,” he said instead. 

He was such an idiot. 

They didn’t even have Whizzer with them. Whizzer was the big paranormal enthusiast of the two of them. Where was Whizzer, anyway? As they passed by the front desk, both him _and_ Marvin were gone. Kevin chose not to worry about that, he had enough to worry about already.

Kevin quickly figured out that Connor was taking him down to the basement. The basement, that he had mentioned the previous night, that had left both Kevin and Whizzer curious. Whizzer would be so upset when he found out that Kevin had been down there without him.

Oh well. He shouldn’t have spent forever arguing, and maybe he could be coming with them.

The light flickered a few times when Connor turned it on. It was cold down there. Kevin didn’t know if that was just because they were below ground or if there was some other reason. There wasn’t much down there, just a few boxes and some furniture. Nobody else was down there. 

Even Connor looked a little freaked out, but he was doing good at not showing it too much. “Only Trina and I have come down here.” He said. “Oh, and Chris, once, because Trina hid his poptarts down here.”

Kevin decided not to question the poptarts thing. “Why not anyone else?”

“Because it’s scary.” Connor smiled. “Or, in Marvin’s case, because it’s ‘pointless,’ because the ‘ghosts aren’t real, anyway.’”

Connor had done a mocking, low voice when imitating Marvin, that made Kevin chuckle. “Does he really not believe?”

“I’ve wondered that, myself. Part of me thinks he’s just in denial. That, maybe, he’s seen things or heard things and was just too scared by it.” Connor shrugged. “Or, he’s just a jerk and refuses to acknowledge that anyone else’s experiences are valid because he always has to be right.”

“Sounds like you know him well.”

“Not really. I mean, we’ve worked together for a few years, but we never really talked much. We’re usually on different floors. And, even at staff meetings or parties, when we are together, he sits off to the side and just kind of… glowers.”

Kevin watched him think about it. Then Connor smiled brightly and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Now hold on,” he said, turning around and taking a few pictures of the area.”

Kevin would be lying if he said that he was a little disappointed that Connor wasn’t pulling his phone out to get Kevin’s number. 

But, then, the phone was held out to Kevin. The pictures that Connor had taken. There was at least one fairly large orb in each picture. “Oh, god,” he murmured. 

But Connor was excited. “Cool, right?” 

“More like creepy.”

“Yeah, but, also cool?”

Kevin shrugged, offering Connor a smile. “Sure. Also cool.” 

Connor seemed to get even more excited, if possible. 

They must have stood down there for at least an hour, taking pictures and talking. Near the end of the hour, a few things flew off of shelves right in front of Kevin’s eyes, but Connor’s cheerful reactions were enough to keep him from getting _too_ scared. 

And then they went back up to the main floor. 

“Thanks for taking me down there,” Kevin said. “It was pretty awesome.” 

“Right?” Connor grinned. “Scary as heck, but fun when you’re with a friend.”

And then Whizzer came by, almost if on cue. He was quick to elbow Kevin’s side. “Where did you go? You just left me all alone, abandoned, on a haunted ghost ship.”

“It’s not a ship,” Kevin commented. “And you were fighting with Marvin. Anyway, I was with Connor. He did a tour outside.”

Both Kevin and Connor seemed to silently, mutually agree not to mention being in the basement just a few minutes before Whizzer’s rearrival. 

Whizzer had only pouted at him. 

It was getting late, now. Had Kevin really spent the _entire_ day with Connor? Not that he was complaining. Kevin wasn’t complaining at all. He’d love to spend the rest of the summer spending every day with Connor, even if it meant being in scary areas of the hotel. Well, areas that were scarier than the rest of it. 

He and Whizzer went back up to their hotel room. They laid in silence for ten minutes, after changing into pajamas, before Whizzer asked, “Can I tell you something?”

Kevin was a little nervous. “... Yeah? Everything okay?”

“Just fine.”

“Okay.”

“Awesome. Don’t judge me, okay?”

Oh no. 

“Alright. Just tell me already, Whizzer.”

“I may have hooked up with Marvin while you were gone.”

“What the-“

“No, no, listen, okay? It was because we were-“

“Whizzer, stop, I _really_ don’t want to hear about-“

“And besides, you’re in love with Connor anyway.”

And then everything got quiet. 

“Yeah,” Kevin sighed, after a little while. 

Even though it was dark, and neither one of them was facing each other, Kevin knew that Whizzer was grinning. 

“Ask him out. On a date to a less haunted attraction.”

“No, thanks.”

“It’ll be fun!”

“He wouldn’t like me that way.”

“Uh, Kevin? Yes? He does?”

Kevin was quiet. 

So Whizzer tried again. “Have you seen the way he looks at you? He likes you, too, I swear.”

“Just shut up,” Kevin huffed. “Go to bed. We’ll talk in the morning.”

And hopefully not about him and Connor. Hopefully even _less_ about Whizzer’s “hook up” with Marvin.


	6. the hallway.

Whizzer decided that the best way to get back at Kevin for abandoning him (even though he still had an _amazing_ time without him) would be to do the same thing to him. So he woke up before him, got dressed, grabbed his camera, and snuck out of the room. 

He ended up wandering downstairs - taking the actual stairs rather than elevator just to see if he could snap any cool shots of orbs or something else down each hallway. And then he spotted Marvin. 

“Hey, hot stuff.”

Marvin turned towards Whizzer, rolled his eyes, and continued walking down the hall. He’d grinned and quickly ran to catch up to him. 

“Not even going to say good morning?”

Marvin glanced at him as he caught up. “Morning.”

Whizzer grabbed Marvin’s hand and, to his surprise, Marvin didn’t try to pull away. “Will you let me go down that scary hallway?”

“No,” Marvin answered. 

“Why not?” Whizzer whined, swinging their arms. “Are you _scared?”_

“No,” he said again. “It’s off limits. Staff only.”

“Connor’s cooler than you. He took Kev and I into some off limits areas.”

That seemed to be all Marvin needed. He rolled his eyes, again, but sighed. “Fine.” 

“Really?” 

“Don’t make me change my mind, Brown.”

Whizzer grinned and kissed Marvin’s cheek. 

 

And so that was how Marvin and Whizzer ended up standing in front of the roped off hallway, Marvin seeming a bit weary but clearly trying to hide it and Whizzer unable to tone down his excitement. 

“I’m not going, by the way. This is all you,” Marvin stated. 

Whizzer made a chicken noise at the shorter man, before stepping over the rope and walking down the hallway. Backwards. Grinning at Marvin. 

Marvin glanced around the rest of the area, making sure that there was nobody else around. It was still fairly early in the morning, so, really, the only people he had to worry about were the other staff members. And, honestly, at this point, they probably wouldn’t care. 

Then, all of a sudden, Whizzer made a noise and was instantly right back at Marvin’s side. He looked _terrified._

“You said that was _bullshit!”_

Marvin raised his eyebrows. “It _is-“_

“No, it isn’t.” Whizzer grabbed Marvin by the arm and pulled him away from the hallway. Marvin couldn’t tell whether he was overreacting or had an actual reason to be freaking out like this. 

But, Whizzer didn’t stop until they got down to the first floor. And then he left Marvin in favor of spotting Kevin, who had probably just recently taken the elevator down. 

“Whizzer-“ Kevin started, but was unable to finish because of the male in question. 

“Kevin, I may or may not have made a huge mistake.”

Kevin instantly looked a little nervous. “The fact that you’re actually admitting to this is what’s scaring me.”

“I went down the hallway.”

 _“The_ hallway?” 

“Yeah,” Whizzer fidgeted with his sleeve. “It was fucking terrifying. I’m pretty sure something tried to attack me.”

“More like something _did_ attack you,” came Connor’s voice, from behind. He was gently pulling down the collar of Whizzer’s shirt to show three scratches that went from his shoulder up to his collarbone. 

“Oh my god,” Kevin mumbled. 

Connor sighed, stepping back. “I told you not to go down there..”

“I know,” Whizzer answered, running his fingers over the scratches. “But you can’t tell me not to do something and expect me to actually obey.”

“Fair enough,” Connor gave a shrug. 

“But,” Kevin quickly threw in, with a pointed glare at his brother, “you won’t be going down there again. Right?”

Whizzer shrugged, this time.

But Kevin was persistent. _“Right?”_

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Whizzer answered. “We’re just going to blame Marvin for this. He was the one who told me all of this ghost stuff was bullshit.” 

“And now we know that it’s way more than… that.” Connor started. Kevin thought it was adorable that he didn’t want to say bullshit. “So we won’t be going down the hallway. _Or_ messing around in similarly haunted areas, at least without talking to me first.”

Whizzer gave another shrug, but Kevin nodded. “Of course. I’ll just have to keep this one on a leash.”


	7. kitchen nightmares & search parties

Somehow, Kevin ended up getting dragged into the kitchen at nighttime. Whizzer was eagerly telling Trina and Chris about his time in the hallway. Both of them were listening intently. Kevin, really, was only there to keep Whizzer from doing anything too stupid. It didn’t seem like there was anything too stupid to do in a kitchen, but this was Whizzer and it was a haunted kitchen. Plenty of things could go wrong.

“Three scratches,” Chris said, sitting on the countertop. “You know what that means, right? It’s the mark of the devil.”

“I thought that was the three sixes,” Kevin mumbled.

Chris shrugged. “Well, yeah, that too. But, think about it. _Three_ sixes. It’s things that come in threes.”

“What about the lamb head?” Trina asked. “Or sheep. Whatever it is.”

“Goat,” Whizzer corrected.

“Yeah, sure,” She shrugged.

Chris was rolling his eyes. “Not the point. What I’m trying to say is that you might have been clawed by something demonic.”

“What does that mean?” Kevin questioned. Whizzer didn’t seem nearly as worried as he should have been.

“I don’t know. I know that Connor has gotten the three scratches before. Multiple times,” Chris said. “He seems fine, so it might not mean anything. But, you know, I wouldn’t be too surprised if we found out that Connor was actually a devil, or was being possessed by one.”

Connor was suddenly standing in the opening of the kitchen door, pouting at Chris. 

“Speak of the devil,” Whizzer mumbled.

“I’m not here to be accused of being a demon,” Connor said, with a roll of his eyes. “I was just wondering if any of you have seen Marvin in the last, like, half hour. He’s supposed to be giving a night tour and he hasn’t shown up.”

“Not surprised,” Trina murmured with a huff. 

Whizzer shrugged, “I saw him this morning. He let me get clawed to almost death by a demon.”

“He’s probably scared,” Chris grinned. “He’s hiding.”

Kevin added on, “Or _he’s_ a demon.”

Trina pointed at Kevin, “That’s a valid theory. More valid than Connor being a demon.”

“Which is pretty valid,” Chris stated.

Connor huffed. “Okay, thanks, I’m leaving-”

“Wait!” Whizzer called. “Let’s put together a search party! We can all go look for him. And ghosts.”

“Split into groups!” Chris agreed, grinning. “This will be great!”

The two of them ended up convincing everyone that this was a good idea, and they split into groups. Whizzer and Chris quickly took off on their own, leaving Connor, Kevin, and Trina. And then Connor said that he had to give the tour, since Marvin was MIA. 

 

**Team One: Whizzer and Chris**

Were they _actually_ going to look for Marvin? No, not really. This was more or less an excuse for the two of them to play around in the hallways and mess with ghosts and, quite possibly, go into areas that they both know are forbidden. (But not The Hallway. Whizzer had enough of that… for today.) 

“Did Connor or Marvin tell you about the secret floor that you can apparently get to from the elevator?” Chris asked.

Whizzer shook his head. “What? No. Is it real?”

“No clue. I’ve never tried. Should we?”

The invitation was completely unnecessary. 

The two of them ended up in one of the elevators, giggling like children and pressing a bunch of buttons in an apparently methodical order. They both kind of knew that nothing cool was going to happen, but they were having fun. 

“Have you ever used a Oujia Board?” Whizzer asked, as they waited for the elevator to come to a stop. At all of the floors. 

Chris nodded. “Yeah. But nothing really happened. James and I just sat on the floor for ten minutes, asking questions and waiting and never getting answers. Then we got bored and gave up.”

“Lame.” Whizzer commented. “What if we took one into The Hallway?”

“Do you have a death wish?”

“No. Just curious.”

“I’m sure you’d get _something.”_

**Team Two: Trina and Kevin**

“Can I be honest with you?” Trina asked, as they got in the elevator. They, logically, had tried texting and calling Marvin, but hadn’t got a response. 

“Yeah,” Kevin nodded, glancing at her. “Of course.”

“I don’t even care if we don’t find him.”

That made Kevin chuckle. 

As they got out of the elevator, they swore they heard Whizzer’s and Chris’s voices laughing and goofing off behind one of the doors. Neither one of them were really surprised, nor did they actually do anything about it.

Trina sighed, glancing down a hallway. “I bet he got caught up arguing with the little boy again. Jason. Marvin still insists that the kid isn’t a ghost.”

Kevin raised his eyebrows. “Marvin’s talked to Jason?”

“Yeah. He thinks that he was just a little kid trying to scare him, even though we have records and reports, and some pretty solid evidence, that the kid really is a ghost.” She said, with a roll of her eyes. 

“Maybe he’s just scared.”

“Or a dumbass,” she corrected, with a scoff. 

**Team… Three???: Marvin (and the child that can’t be a ghost but swears that he is. Where’s his family? Marvin doesn’t know)**

“It’s after curfew,” Marvin said, for the tenth time. “You need to be in bed. WHere are your parents?”

“Dead.”

“Yeah, haha, really funny, kid. Look, you’re like eight-”

“Twelve. You really don’t know anything, do you?”

This kid was getting on Marvin’s last nerve. He was about to call… someone. The police, or something. This stupid kid has been here for weeks. Where _were_ his parents? Why was he alone in the hallway this late at night? “Go to bed.”

“I’m not tired,” the boy rolled his eyes. “I haven’t been tired since the 80s. When I died, becuase I was hit by a car-”

“You’re such a great storyteller.”

“Yeah, probably because it’s not a story.”

“Lose the attitude.”

“Maybe I wouldn’t have one if you weren’t here trying to tell me that my, and my parents’ deaths, weren’t real.”

Marvin stared. The kid stared back. If Marvin were stupid, he would be falling for this kid’s act. He was certainly pale enough to be a ghost. And he was kind of scary enough. And his clothes really were reminiscent of the 80s - but he _wasn’t_ dumb, so he wasn’t falling for it, because ghosts were complete and total bullshit.

“Stop calling me bullshit!”

“... What?” Did he accidentally say that out loud?

The boy groaned, rolling his eyes again. “God, living people are so _stupid!”_

And then he disappeared. 

What the fuck? How did he do that? The kid must know how to do magic, or something. That kid was _good -_ but not good enough to fool Marvin.

“Marvin!”

Marvin turned. Ugh. “Connor.”

Connor had a group of people behind him. “It was your turn for a night tour.”

“Oops?”

He watched as the redhead rolled his eyes at him and led the people down a different hall, launching into some story.

They’d like it better with Connor, anyway, Marvin knew. He was doing them a favor.


	8. possessions (or something like that)

Whizzer was acting _weird_ when they got back to their room. And not the normal weird that Kevin was used to. He was quiet and subdued, and almost immediately insisted on going to bed - and saying that Kevin had to turn off his bedside lamp, too, because it was too bright, even though it was Whizzer who’s once fallen asleep with all of the lights on. Kevin complied, because he was tired, too, but this was so unlike Whizzer. 

Kevin began to worry about what Chris had told them earlier. The three scratches, probably something demonic. But, apparently, Connor had gotten them a few times but was fine? But everyone was talking about how he must have been a demon or possessed anyway? Kevin had no idea whether that topic of discussion was fun and joke or if they were being serious. If it was a joke, they were all in on it (except for Connor, himself). 

Really, Kevin was probably just worrying himself too much. He was probably just thinking too hard about this. 

_But I’d rather think too hard than to become one of the ghosts here because my brother really is possessed by a demon and ends up killing me in my sleep._

Wow. Yeah. Okay. Yikes. Kevin was _definitely_ overthinking this. But still, he found himself lying on his back, staring at the ceiling, completely unable to sleep. 

He slowly slipped out of his bed, quiet, and decided to just go wander the hallways again. Maybe he’d run into Arnold or something. The guy was loud, but he was kind of funny. 

“What are you doing?”

Kevin jumped. “Jesus, you scared me.”

“Sorry.” It was just Whizzer, from his bed. “Where are you going?”

“Can’t sleep.”

“Oh.”

Kevin turned the handle.

“Going to go make out with Connor?”

“Uh- No. Thanks. Bye,” and then he left the room, closing the door behind him. 

Okay, so that was fine. That was a fairly normal conversation. But maybe it was just the demon trying to _trick_ Kevin into believing that Whizzer wasn’t possessed -

He heard a couple of girls talking as they rounded the corner to the hallway. As they came into view, it was a tall, fair skinned blonde girl, who was holding a camera, and a shorter, darker skinned, brunette. 

“I saw a little boy, I swear,” the blonde girl was saying, frowning at her camera. “He didn’t show up in pictures…”

“I really doubt that you saw a little boy,” the other girl said, skeptically. 

“I did, I promise! Char, I-“ And then she spotted Kevin. “Excuse me, sir, have you seen the ghost of a little boy around here at all? Or heard reports of him being seen?”

Kevin nodded. “I’ve seen him myself. His name is Jason.”

“Ha!” The blonde girl stuck her tongue out at the other girl. 

“You’re not bullshitting us, right?” The brunette asked. 

“No, of course not,” Kevin shook his head. 

“I’m Cordelia,” the blonde greeted, holding her hand out. As he took it, she motioned to the girl beside her with her other hand. “This is Charlotte, my fiancé!”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Kevin said, now shaking Charlotte’s hand. “I’m Kevin.”

Cordelia was quick to jump into asking him questions. “What other things have you seen here? Other than the little boy?”

“Uh.. Well, things fly out of closets in one of the rooms. And the bathroom door in my own room won’t stay closed - or opened. It moves a lot. And… my brother got scratched by a _something_ because he was messing around, and now I’m kind of worried that he’s possessed or something because he’s acting weird.”

“How deep were the scratches?” Charlotte asked. 

“They were pretty superficial. I don’t think they even bled at all. They just look bad… they might bruise or something.” Kevin shrugged. He knew nothing about injuries. 

“She’s a doctor,” Cordelia said with a smile. 

“In training,” Charlotte added on. “I’m still in school.” 

Kevin nodded. “That’s pretty neat.” 

He talked with them for awhile. He learned that Cordelia absolutely believed in ghosts, and it was her idea to come here. Charlotte didn’t believe, was more of a skeptic, but she thought the _idea_ of a haunted hotel was fun and interesting. She did admit that there were a few things she couldn’t explain, but she still didn’t seem too keen in believing that it was actual ghosts. They were cool. 

When Kevin ended up going back to his room, Whizzer was gone. Again. If he was in that hallway again…

It turned out, thankfully, that he was not in the hallway. He was downstairs, flirting with Marvin again. Kevin couldn’t tell whether Marvin was ignoring him or not, but it sure looked like he was. 

As Kevin got closer, it seemed like Whizzer was doing less of the flirting (thank God Himself) and more of talking. Talking about the previous night. 

“It was weird,” Whizzer was saying. He was sitting on the edge of the counter, facing Marvin. Marvin was looking at a computer. “I felt dizzy and lightheaded for, like, a solid ten minutes. Then I was fine again.”

“Dizzy spells aren’t uncommon, Brown,” Marvin grumbled, clearly not having whatever Whizzer was trying to tell him. 

Whizzer rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure, but this was _different._ It was like… I felt dead. Like I was dying.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Like I was slowly being cut off from the world.”

“Yep.”

“Are you even listening to me, Marvin? I’m actually freaked out.”

“I bet.”

Whizzer groaned. “You’re such an asshole. Fuck you. I’ll go talk to Connor instead.”

Kevin could only watch as his brother slid off of the counter and wandered off, clearly in search of the redhead. (Honestly, if Whizzer wanted _real_ answers, he should have skipped talking to Marvin, anyway.) 

The information that he’d overheard freaked him out again. If Whizzer was being serious, then that could mean that he really _was_ possessed. And Kevin _hated_ to think of that. He quickly rushed to follow after his brother - he wanted to hear what Connor had to say on the issue. And he just _prayed_ that there wouldn’t have to be any exorcisms.


	9. hiatus? sort of?

hi everyone that’s been reading my work!!

i’m just going to apologize now, for the lack of uploads, lack of content, and so on. i’ve been going through an awful case of writer’s block, and haven’t liked anything that i’ve written for about a month now, to be honest. i feel horrible for not updating any of my fanfictions, especially when i know how many of you out there have been waiting. i just wasn’t at all happy with how any of it was turning out. i tried rewriting a few chapters multiple times, and hated everything that came out of it. 

i’m not giving up on writing, but i think i’m going to give up on the few fics i’ve been working on previously. i’m starting a new one right now, and i’m super happy with the plot and how it’s going so far. i can’t wait to share it with everyone! i’ve been working on my writing styles and i think i’ve found something, similar to my old one but more descriptive, that i like better, that i’m testing out with this new fic that i’m working on. 

to recap, i’m so sorry for not providing any new content. thank you for all of the amazing comments, reviews, likes and so on - i appreciate every single one of you. and if you’re interested, a new story should be up very soon.

:’) ❤️


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